The Saudi Islamist Conundrum

editor Saturday 12 August 2017

By Melanie Phillips.. Modern Islamic Warfare, a monograph by Middle East analyst and former Pentagon staffer Dr Harold Rhode, is essential reading. You can download it here. Concisely and clearly it explains the Islamic world, the confusions it causes amongst those who don’t understand it and why, as a result, the west is being defeated by it. [Photo top right: Wiki conundrum, Wikipedia Commons]. There is one passage in particular which sheds valuable light on the Islamist threat now terrorising the world, and explains in turn the otherwise baffling role played by Saudi Arabia in both helping create that threat and fighting its terrorist perpetrators. The passage follows here.

The vast majority of Islamic terrorism is Sunni. How do the governments in Sunni Muslim societies tackle Islamic jihadism that threatens to overthrow existing Sunni governments which the jihadis label “apostates?” A fascinating example is what happened in Saudi Arabia when what the Saudis would call “Islamic extremist jihadis” took control of the holy mosque in Mecca in 1979. Read the full story.

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